The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-08-17

dition. Oats and corn promise large
Weld. Potatoes on low land are not
doing well, and in some sections there
is much complaint of rust and rot. AT
the present time, however, the indica-
tons are that the yield of farm products,
as whole, in Vermont will be above
the average and that most farmers will
have something to sell beyond the re-
quirements for home consumption.
While some sections of New England
have had an overabundance of rain, a
large territory in the West has been
stricken by a drouth more severe and
widespread than has been experienced
in many years. The Chicago Journal
represents the outlook for the agri-
culturists of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and
the southern portions of Michigan and
Wisconsin as gloomy in the extreme.
SO arid waste is there around Chicago
that for many miles in some directions
not a spear of grass is visible and in
others the existence of green vegeta-
ton is painfully minute. In many
places the fields are absolutely and
hopelessly burned out. OF necessary
food for live stock there will be an
appalling dearth, and thus the prices of
milk, meat, butter, cheese and other
farm produce may be expected to rise
to an altogether unprecedented height.
1t is estimated that the loss to farmers
in the afflicted sections will be over
three hundred million dollars.
The last report of the bureau of
agriculture states that the drouth in
the West has been severest in Kansas,
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.
Nebraska has been scorched on the
southern border, and Iowa and Missouri
have escaped with comparatively light
loss, as have the more northern states.
There will be, in consequence of the
widespread drouth, heavy reduction
in the corn crop. The condition of
spring wheat is reported low, the bar
ley crop is somewhat below the aver
age, and there is great reduction
since the first of July in the condition
of potatoes There is no material de-
cline on the Atlantic or Gulf coast, but
the injury is severe in the West. The
loss during the month, as reported, is
fully twenty per cent of the prospective
crop. The fruit crop is very poor in
the West. There will be few apples
outside New England and New York.
There will be partial crop in Michi-
gan. In the Ohio river states the
harvest will be nearly failure. The
hay crop is also greatly reduced in the
West. The past month has been favor
able to cotton. The tobacco crop is in
good condition in several states, but
low in the drouth-stricken states and
below the average in Kentucky and
Tennessee. Reports of disaster to the
rice crop by freshets is reported from
South Carolina and Georgia. 1t is be-
lieved that fully five hundred thousand
barrels have been lost.
The real loss Swallowed in the crop
report falls, however, on two impor-
tant crops-potatoes and hay-though
the reduction in corn will be severely
felt in Illinois and Indiana in the de-
crease of the pork product. The effect
of partial loss of crops is not only a
serious matter to the farmers in the
regions affected, but is unfavorable to
the general prosperity. The interests
of the New England States may suffer
less because of the abundance of our
farm productions and possible in
crease in prices.
THE master of the state grange has
made an appeal to the governor in be-